EPCglobal Ratifies New Electronic Pedigree Standard

Brussels, Belgium (Jan. 11)-EPCglobal (www.epcglobalinc.org), the not-for-profit organization dedicated to driving global adoption of the Electronic Product Code (EPC), has ratified the electronic pedigree document specification.

The new electronic pedigree standard is designed to help companies that are serializing products using EPC technology to comply with pedigree regulations. Its initial focus was the Florida Drug Pedigree Act, but it can be used as a platform to support a wide variety of pedigree process applications.

According to EPCglobal’s president, Chris Adcock, the standard will ensure that “trading partners have an interoperable way to exchange document-based pedigrees for pharmaceuticals and other products.” He adds that “supply chain participants can begin to comply with document-based pedigree regulations without fear of serious interoperability issues.”

The standard features an ePedigree document schema as well as an ePedigree envelope schema, which companies can use to hold multiple ePedigrees together in a single document for electronic transmission. It is meant to serve as a tool in the fight to protect brands against counterfeiting.

EPCglobal has also begun work to develop a full track-and-trace system based on the EPC Information Services (EPCIS) standard, which is expected in the first quarter of 2007. This new system would allow pedigree information to be shared both upstream and downstream, rather than the information passing from trading partner to trading partner in only one direction.